Everyone has heard the phrase “you cannot legislate morality.” This is true. Not even God can legislate morality, and scripture verifies this. Regardless of how just or moral a law is, morality simply cannot be legislated. People break laws and commit immoral acts all the time. People lie, cheat, steal, murder, slander, etc. All that any attempt to legislate morality can do to ensure moral behavior is to create punishments and penalties for breaking the law/moral code.

Murder is illegal in our country. Murder is immoral. Murders are committed all the time. Immoral people break the law, and having it written down in a legal document does not make people moral. The only way to enforce legislated morality is to create punishments for breaking the law. And punishments exist because people are not moral. Moral and upright people will never murder because their hearts and souls are moral and righteous. The illegality or wrongness of it is written within their hearts. This is true for today’s laws, and this is true in the Biblical section known as Torah.

The Torah is a very interesting section of the Bible that deserves to be studied. Serious questions deserve an answer, and many questions and problems over Christianity comes from an improper understanding of the Torah. Misunderstanding the Torah can lead to misunderstanding Christianity. FULL POST

The virginity of athletes such as Tim Tebow and Lolo Jones makes news headlines.

Today’s culture certainly has a schizophrenic view of sex. In today’s culture, there exists both shaming virgins for being virgins and shaming non-virgins for having casual sex. I’m not talking about gender double-standards, although they still exist. I’m talking about the double-minded attitudes toward and within the same gender.

Modern society is so contradictory. There is virgin-shaming. I can understand why this corrupt society shames virgins. Sexual promiscuity is falsely portrayed as independence, freedom, and empowerment. However, women are also shamed as being sluts. Why does society contradict itself at every opportunity?

In the past, women were expected to remain virgins until marriage. If they did not marry, then they were still expected to remain virgins and to die as a virgin because sex was only for marriage. In the 1960s and 1970s, many women decried virginity as patriarchal and oppressive or repressive. To have sex before marriage became considered a good thing, a form of empowerment. Today, the main group of people encouraging sex within marriage only are the Christians.

Like slut-shaming, virgin-shaming involves making fun of someone for their personal choices regarding sex. But while slut-shaming has become increasingly frowned upon, virgin-shaming remains fairly acceptable, and can be a form of veiled religious bigotry. FULL POST

There is this awkward and strange feeling as I write this. When I first started this article about Paul Walker and his character Brian O’Conner, the death of actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman was announced in the news a day or two later. Within a week, three different friends of mine, each went through the death of a family member. Of course, I’m no stranger to my share of these tragedies.

Everyone mourns and misses the loved one who passed from this world. For everyone, there is this longing and regret at not having the loved one nearby. For the Christians, there is the hope and the promise that they will meet again one day in Heaven. In the time between now and that day, there remains all the people and the things that the loved one left in this world.

Regarding Paul Walker, what remains is the character Brian O’Conner for the cast and crew. Paul Walker’s unexpected death has presented a major problem to everyone involved in the Fast & Furious franchise: what to do with the fate of his character Brian O’Conner? FULL POST

It is now 13 months since Iranian Pastor Yousef was freed from prison. Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini remains in prison and has been there over a year. Two petitions have been organized and are currently gaining signatures for his release.

Saeed Abedini is an American citizen who had immigrated here from Iran, and he was arrested while visiting family in Iran. The first prison was Evin prison in Iran. Saeed suffered medical problems that the prison officials refused to treat. Later, he was moved to Rajai Shahr, one of the most violent and savage prisons in Iran.

Following some comments in a personal interview, the Phil Robertson controversy and its aftermath have given Christians a wonderful opportunity to discuss their scripture and to help people understand what it means "do not judge" and to "love everyone." In his statements discussing homosexuality, Phil Robertson never said anything hateful nor deragotory toward homosexuals. In fact, he stated the phrase "do not judge" and that he loves everyone. This is the same sentiment expressed by Pope Francis and the same sentiment that every Christian should express.

The Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson controversy happened very fast all within one day. First, Phil Robertson stated that gay sex is a sin. Then, A&E suspended him from his own show. Immediately, the fans cried out upon news of his suspension. The contact information for A&E immediately became available on a face book page and all throughout the internet. The gay advocacy group GLAAD decried Phil Robertson as a homophobic bigot aka a hater.

The gays and lesbians of GLAAD have no understanding what hatred actually is. Apparently, they believe that if you disagree with their behavior, then you hate them. And they have no clue what the Christian phrase means “do not judge.” This group also has no understanding of what love actually is, either. In Phil Robertson’s interview, I have seen only love - never hatred - for the GLBT group, yet they accuse him of hatred because he disagrees with their behavior. FULL POST

Note: for the holiday season, I have posted this little story for everyone to enjoy. I hope yall enjoy it!

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Michael the Archangel entered the office of Gabriel, trumpet-bearer and second-in-command of Heaven. God always reigns first. Gabriel has authority over the secondary matters “Hey, Gabriel, did you know that Baruchiel has been painting graffiti on all the walls? And still painting right now.”

“Baruchiel? Graffiti?”

“Yes, come and look.”

Gabriel followed Michael to a certain wall where Baruchiel painted busily.

Michael told him, “Baruchiel has been inscribing this ever since he returned from delivering the message to those shepherds. I’ve never seen anyone so obsessed with graffiti before.”

“I see nothing wrong with this. A good message.” Smiling, Gabriel walked off back to his office.

“Gabriel! What about the graffiti itself? Should we have graffiti in Heaven?”

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All the other inhabitants of Heaven considered Baruchiel’s graffiti a nuisance precisely because it was graffiti. Angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim would awaken to find the walls of their abodes covered with a singular phrase written in bright multi-colored paints that they never chose for their dwelling. If they went to watch the warrior angels wrestle, they passed by graffiti. If they went to listen to seraphim compose new songs, they passed by graffiti. If they wanted to play a sports game, the graffiti easily distracted the contestants. FULL POST

This is a photo-snap of the second comment I had made, part of which is quoted here... I had wanted to post it on the article, but I did not think it would look right. Then, I thought I made it too small... The analysis is clarified here.

Over the weekend, I encountered the perfect example of “Do Not Judge” all the while realizing anew that some people are carnally-minded meatheads. Friday at work during my last break, I checked the Facebook newsfeed on my phone. One of my friends had commented on a group, and that automatically shows up on the newsfeed. The conversation began very encouraging and inspiring with people affirming biblical equality between straights and gays - that we are all broken sinners in need of a savior.The discussion went from biblical equality between gays and straights into whether same-sex attraction is a choice, is rooted in psychology or what….Rereading the comments, I noticed that when one person used the word “perversion” they connected it to straight sins as well. One person said, “Homosexuality is like adultery or any other sexual sin, a perversion of what God set up.” Adultery is also a perversion. I like that. It makes gay sex the same as straight sins. By and large, as far as I noted, that particular word was absent in the conversation. However, this might be due to the fact that the owner purged membership after people became too angry.FULL POST

Typically, I do not pay much attention to entertainment gossip, because it is after all senseless and banal gossip. I have better things to do than to pry into someone's personal life. During one of my breaks, I discovered that the banality of gossip has reached new levels that I never imagined. The beard and hairstyle are not newsworthy, but the gossip's overreaction and baseless conclusion is very amusing. While at work, I went into the breakroom for my fifteen minute break. As usual, the television was playing, and this time, yep, the entertainment celebrity gossip. Angus T. Jones made the headlines again, this time for a growing beard and a new hair style. The gossipy host announced, "Angus T. Jones," child star of Two and a Half Men is having a nervous breakdown..And that's it? Gossipers presume the young man is having a nervous breakdown on account of a beard and a different hair style?.The news gossiper questioned whether the young man is having a nervous breakdown and showed the new appearance to his pastor Christopher Hudson. Hudson said, "it looks like he's trying something new." And that was it.FULL POST

This past week, I have been going through the psalms. The psalms are fascinating and deserve a thorough study. I have taken sections and compiled a few of them. Although there are psalms of rejoicing and praising, there are numerous psalms dealing with sorrow, suffering, and distress. Many ask for wisdom and guidance to do God's will during times of troubles as well as salvation and redemption from oppression and from enemies. The oppressive enemy could be a troubling situation or circumstance, not an actual person..One of the main themes is "teach me to do Your will" or "Give me wisdom and understanding so that I may do Your will." Discord and strife, both internal and external, come from actions that are not aligned with God - what people do to us, what occurs within us, and what is done by us. During times of trouble and distress, believers sometimes have difficulty finding the right course of action, so they need wisdom and understanding to pull through. God is our Creator. As the Creator, He understands what is best for us. Thus, we need the wisdom to do His will for us will, and this wisdom will make life easier..There is also a great emphasis on the human soul in the psalms. Because these are the main themes, I have taken bits of many and compiled them together into one for a cohesive sampling..Preface of the New King James translation says "The covenant name of God was usually translated as LORD. In going back, I decided to replace LORD with YHWH, which is how it would originally read. YHWH or Yahweh comes from an acronym of sorts for "I Am Who I Am." I particularly like Augustine referring to God in this statement "He Who Is." For the Jews, YHWH is by Himself without a Trinity. For Christians, we can consider YHWH to be God the Father within the Trinity.. Psalm 61: 1-3, 5 FULL POST